Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Severance by Ling Ma

19 reviews

crimsonreader's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I...did not...expect this...

Something about the way the first paragraphs of the synopsis are written made me think this would have sarcastic, dark, millennial humor in is plot... But instead it truly makes you feel and think.
Obviously this whole adventure hits WAY different in a post covid-19 world and I think that's to it's benefit. While I'm certain the story still gripped and engrossed in 2018, having actually lived the fear of people and air and jobs and future and closures and emptiness really makes the book's feeling real.
More real, even then the reality. I felt more loneliness reading Candace's experience in her NY office than I did going to and from my own city job on empty El cars in 2020. It's surreal and I couldn't stop reading. 

As a note, Ma doesn't utilize quotation marks for any of her dialogue. I think I would have going this a problem in another person's writing but there was a sense of memory in the way Severance is written that made the lack of quotes feel right. Like nothing Candace is saying is correct enough to be quoted. It's paraphrased or untrustworthy because it's only how she recalls it and not for sure how it happened. It really does fit the vibe of the story and only caught me up about 4 or 5 times in total. But I know this might be a deal breaker for others, so I'm letting you know.

But I do highly recommend this. I had been interested in it for a while and it lived up to expectations and then some!

Only reason this doesn't have 5 stars is because of that ending! I flipped pages wondering if I somehow skipped something or had some stuck together! I have to know more!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Violence

Moderate: Drug use, Death of parent, Bullying, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, and Grief

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide

dr_kat's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I read this tender, troubling, complex, engaging novel and it wedged into the folds of my brain and wouldn’t shake out. Then the world shut down and a plague worked it’s way into our lives. All I could think about was this book. Weirdly, it helped to see how the protagonist handled her situation; her trials and troubles. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Gaslighting, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Confinement, Gun violence, Abandonment, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, and Suicidal thoughts

iro_san's review against another edition

mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Body horror, Vomit, Cursing, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Alcohol, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexual content, Gun violence, Blood, and Death of parent

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Suicide attempt, Violence, Toxic relationship, Terminal illness, and Grief

kaiyakaiyo's review against another edition

dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

i was gonna be generous and do 3 stars because the cultural parts of this book were compelling, but frankly this book was a snooze fest with a whimper of an ending 

warm bodies starring nicolas fucking hoult managed to make me feel more about an apocalypse and the ~literary~ elements of this book are so overwrought it borders on self-sucking. the most poignant moments in this story are overshadowed by clunky cult shenanigans, a terrible flashback and flash-flashback structure, and an incredibly silly detour into strange & unnecessary sex. not to sound like the internet purity police but the phrase “Schwarzenegger dick” should be banned on every continent. jail for 1000 years

when are synopses going to stop using “satirical” and “deadpan” when they just mean that the author is too dry to write an actual apocalyptic novel so they wrote some handwavy overly meta shadow of one & called it literary fiction. boooooooo tomatoes tomatoes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Blood, Sexism, Misogyny, Murder, Gore, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, and Religious bigotry

raphtseng's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Kind of made me feel scared and sad and shocked at times. It toes the line between dark and satirical, where at times things are so dark you have to choose to laugh. I found both the past and the present well woven, it kept the pace moving. Not too sure what to take away from it. Kind of wild that it was written pre pandemic. And also very meta that candace works at Spectra. Defo made me feel lots of emotions, found it overall unsettling. Loneliness and made me think of Taiwan, some vivid descriptions of missing home, or what home is like, and what having a Chinese parent is like.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Gore, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death, Suicide, and Confinement

hello_lovely13's review against another edition

dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, and Death of parent

Moderate: Pregnancy, Sexual content, and Dementia

Minor: Suicide and Suicidal thoughts

sweetsimplenothing's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pregnancy, Pandemic/Epidemic, Confinement, and Death of parent

Minor: Drug abuse, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, and Gun violence

neenishtart's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Death, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide

Minor: Death of parent and Murder

alisasreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

anti-capitalism and zombies made me want to read this, but i stayed for the way the writer managed to make me feel like i was experiencing it all with candace. very well written and definitely a book i would recommend to people. also pretty odd to read this a year after the pandemic..

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Violence, Confinement, Death, Dementia, Death of parent, Gun violence, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Vomit, and Racism

cheye13's review

dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was a very interesting premise that I really wanted to love.

And I did love Candance and her voice, and how real and rounded she felt as a character. I appreciated the nuances and commentaries on her job and her life "before" and the plot of "after" and how the two intercepted.

I think the dual timeline hurt the narrative a little, but I also think it's the only way the story could be told. I was extremely bored by the "before" timeline, which I assume was kind of the point, but it read so much like general millennial ennui fiction that I just hate. I didn't hate it here, and maybe that was because it was intermittent or just because of how complex Candance's character felt. Meanwhile, the "after" timeline felt incongruous to the book's intent, and also like the only plot we're given.

I think I personally would have preferred a book that was just the "after" timeline with some flashbacks, but I did really appreciate where the timelines aligned at the end of the book and the point that was made.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Violence, Body horror, and Gun violence

Moderate: Drug abuse, Pregnancy, Sexism, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Abortion, Alcohol, and Religious bigotry

There is an off-page implied drug overdose.